Gender-responsive HIV prevention and care research with transgender communities: lessons learned from Peru

Abstract

Globally, transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse (trans) people experience HIV inequities. Calls have been made to engage trans communities in HIV research. Yet few resources exist on how to not only engage with, but center trans communities. We describe our 15+ years of collective experiences partnering on HIV research with trans communities in Peru. Lessons learned include considering context, aspiring for equitable partnerships, continually acknowledging power dynamics, learning from community strengths, practicing reflexivity, building trusting relationships, using a trauma-informed lens, prioritizing knowledge-action, recognizing complex community dynamics, and iteratively implementing gender-responsive praxis. We discuss the need for gender-transformative approaches in HIV epidemiological and interventional research that disrupt existing ideologies and systemic power structures that privilege cisheteropatriarchy (cisgender as the norm) and essentialist understandings of gender (male-female gender binary). The science of community engagement requires more attention in HIV prevention and care research that centers global trans communities' expertise and needs.